Early-stage venture capital fund Accelerating Asia today announced it is changing how it invests, with startups eligible to receive up to S$200,000 investment from Accelerating Asia via a SAFE note for around 7-10 percent of equity. Startups participating in Accelerating Asia’s flagship accelerator programme will receive up to S$200,000 investment including S$25,000 to support their startup, access to the flagship accelerator and around $225,000 in program perks.
Accelerating Asia’s programme seeks to identify high-impact and high-potential startups from all sectors across the region and catalyse their growth. The investment size puts Accelerating Asia ahead of the curve from most early-stage startup accelerators in the region who are investing SG$100,000 or less in their startups in exchange for equity.
“Over the past two years, we have proven our accelerator-fund model and have gained deep insights through touchpoints with more than 2,000 startups during recruitment as well as strong relationships with leading investors in the region,” said Amra Naidoo, General Partner and Co-Founder at Accelerating Asia. “With the additional funding, we’re better positioned to take bigger bets on startups that come through our program while still working closely with founders to scale their growth, close investment and take their businesses to the next level.”
The investment terms and market reach across ecosystems in the region enables Accelerating Asia to gain insights into startups at a deeper level during recruitment, selection and as they come through its 100-day accelerator programme. Programme mechanics and curriculum will remain the same within the programme continuing to deliver high value to startup founders through dedicated Entrepreneur-in-residence sessions, masterclasses and exclusive access to Accelerating Asia’s mentor and investor networks.
Since its launch in 2018, Accelerating Asia has grown into a community of more than 39 founders from 19 startups, spread across nine countries with 40 percent female-led or co-founded ventures. These 19 companies while participating in Accelerating Asia’s flagship programme have raised a collective investment of over S$5 million.
Accelerating Asia’s 2nd cohort includes nine startups who are solving a wide range of problems across a diverse set of B2B verticals, including logistics, big data, edtech, agritech and e-commerce. It saw significant investment interest from angels, VCs and family offices raising a combined investment of over S$2.5 million. Eight startups from cohort 2 raised outside capital with iFarmer, Numu, IZY.ai and Priyoshop raising rounds during the 100-day programme.
“Numu was able to come to Singapore to close a funding round within four weeks of landing through Accelerating Asia’s investment network,” remarked Craig Bristol Dixon, General Partner and CEO at Accelerating Asia. “In what we consider a cohort effect, a number of our portfolio companies are also working together and entering partnerships to deliver value to customers and their investors.”
Agri-fintech startup iFarmer secured S$640,000 of investment during the cohort with investment from Accelerating Asia and angels in Singapore, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
iFarmer and Priyoshop have partnered to provide end-to-end food supply and connect farmers to SMEs to deliver fresh produce. While manufacturing supply chain startup Nitex has added PPE equipment to their offering and saw a 200 percent growth rate in demand for their product a week after launching the initiative.
“Closer to home, Singaporean edtech Joni.ai company has also experienced significant growth in the past month with a spike in demand for its products, Joni.Ai and Joni.Mentor as more people move to home education setups,” added Dixon.
